History Under the Waves: The Gunboat Spitfire

This undated R.F. Heinrich drawing shows American soldiers building gunboats for the Battle of Valcour Island, fought in 1776.

(HOST INTRO) Three hundred historic shipwrecks have been documented at the bottom of Lake Champlain. All this week VPR is taking a look at what sent five of them to the bottom and into the history books in our series, "History Under the Waves".

Built in 1776, it was part of Benedict Arnold's first American naval fleet on the lake. Roughly fifty-four feet long and carrying heavy cannons, swivel guns and a compliment of forty-five men, it was designed to repel ships escorting the British army down the lake.

In late September, 1776, Arnold's fleet of fifteen ships was patrolling the northern
end of Lake Champlain, engaging in skirmishes with the British. He retreated south to Valcour Island, a location that permitted the fleet to escape bad weather and position itself for a possible engagement.

AP

This is a copy of a watercolor painting depicting the American fleet in the Battle of Valcour Island, commanded by General Benedict Arnold in 1776. The Gunboat Spitfire is depicted on the bottom row, fifth in from the left.

On the morning of October 11, the British fleet, moving south, passed Arnold's ships which were anchored on the west side of Valcour without noticing them at first. Turning north after discovering the Americans, the British fleet engaged Arnold's in what is now known as the Battle of Valcour Island. Art Cohn, Director of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum describes the battle that led to the Spitfire's sinking.

(ART COHN) All hell broke loose in
terms of "They're really here. We've got to get ready for this engagement.

AP/Toby Talbot

A model of a Revolutionary War gunboat sits in front of Art Cohn, left, museum director, at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Ferrisburgh, Vt., Monday, June 30, 1997.

The British had sailed around
the outside of Valcour Island with a northerly wind so they had to actually beat
back against the wind to engage Arnold. And that's
what probably gave his fleet the chance to survive that day. Because the British fleet which was larger,
better armed and better sailors did engage in more than five hour, very close
battles, broadside to broadside, a horrific engagement, loud, smoky, deafening.

You would have not seen very
much, cause once your cannon started to fire you were pretty much enveloped in gun
smoke for a good part of the day. And
all the other boats would have almost created their own little
smokescreen.

But you would have heard a
constant, deafening roar of large cannon, smaller cannon, swivel guns and small
arms.

The schooner Royal Savage was
lost almost before the engagement ever really formally started. And it was the Royal Savage being set afire
the night of October 11th that we think aided Arnold in this almost unbelievable, daring nighttime escape,
where he was able to row and sail his fleet single file past the British
blockade that had been set up specifically to stop him from doing just that.

And it was on that retreat,
in the middle of the night, that the gunboat Spitfire, leaking so badly from
damage and its activities during the battle was forced to be abandoned and sent
to the bottom of Lake
Champlain, where we found it
in 1997.

And we staged a verification dive. And sure enough, as we got to the bottom and went in the direction we thought the boat was, using our compasses, we came into contact with a Revolutionary War gunboat that hadn't been seen since the early morning hours of October 12th, 1776.

And what we could see was,
this boat was completely intact right up to the gunnel. It's sitting upright just like it was
sailing. The mast is still
standing! And it's still standing full
height!

And then the great excitement
of getting to the bow of the vessel and realizing that the large bow cannon was
not only still with the boat, but it was in its exact firing position on its
carriage, in its slide and was still trying to find somebody to shoot at. It was really quite remarkable.

These intact three
dimensional vessels, the true shipwrecks have all the material culture of their
time and moment. They are clues and
evidence to the way society functioned in the past.

In a military ship that was
operating during 1776, we really do get to study and try to understand the
profound questions of the origin of the country. And that's a privilege and an opportunity
that I think we all feel very lucky to be around.

(HOST) Tomorrow in our series we'll look at the steamboat Phoenix that met its fiery fate in 1819. You can find more information on this series
and others in our Champlain400 coverage at VPR.net.

Originally broadcast July 27, 2009 as part of VPR's Champlain 400 coverage.